The meeting between officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) are likely to clear the obstacles in the way of widening of state and national highways that pass through the district. According to Vikas Deshmukh, the district collector, “the Pune-Nashik national highway, the Pune-Saswad-Jejuri state highway, and the Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur-Navhara road projects have been delayed due to villagers’ opposition to acquisition of land. I have now asked officials concerned to hold discussions with villagers and initiate land acquisition process on priority. The officials will get police protection if required.” He also added that the traffic on national and state highways that pass through Pune has been increasing, especially that of heavy vehicles, which need to be streamlined urgently. The government has planned to widen the Pune-Nashik highway and the Pune-Saswad-Jejuri highway to four lanes from the existing two lanes. Besides, there is a plan to widen the Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur-Nhavra road to four lanes.
The widening of the Pune-Nashik highway will reduce frequent traffic jams at Narayangaon, Chakan, Alephata. The four laning of the Talegaon-Shikrapur road will also reduce the number of heavy vehicles entering the city, as vehicles coming from Mumbai will get direct access to Ahmednagar and Solapur highways.
The Road widening project in Pune district is as follows:-
- Four laning of the Pune-Nashik highway
- Four laning of the Pune-Saswad-Jejuri state highway
- Expansion of the Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur-Navhara road
- Bypass from Talegaon to Chakan MIDC
- Four laning of the Baramati-Phaltan Road
